Original AVA Failure Mystery Solved !

My original flight AVA suffered a GPS failure which we put down to a dodgy ground on the antenna however thanks to information from the GPSL mailing list it appears the cause was actually the AEE MD91 Camera that so spectacularly captured the decent into the North Sea.

I’ve tested this evening and can confirm categorically the AEE MD91 does jam GPS at close range even on the more advanced uBLOX chips.

With the camera off :

$$AVA,6,18:42:37,53.7525356,-1.8179630,259,8,6,3,5364*C6B5
The important bit is 8,6,3 = sats, navmode , lock

Turned the camera on and placed near the tracker :

$$AVA,17,18:46:00,53.7562549,-1.8242525,1019,0,6,0,5364*C5BE

All satellites gone and the lock indicator reading 0. Yikes. I quickly wrapped the camera in foil and this does actually fix the issue but I probably would err on the side of caution and not fly this again.

So in summary beware AEE MD91 Camera does jam GPS when in close proximity.

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